Lauri Tiainen: Whirling

March 25 - April 19, 2022

Whirling is Lauri Tiainen’s (b. 1988) first solo exhibition outside his native Finland. The show features 5 new oil paintings, combining abstract and figurative elements. Whirling pulls us into deeper spheres, where something tamed meets wild, stillness and eternity alternate. Forms flow from organic to strange.

‘My painting often begins with some state of emotion or memory, details of my own life can often appear on the canvas. Subjects can be real or imaginary, depicting an image, a certain colour, or a trace, or they can be something I’ve seen or heard. I could describe my way of painting quite spontaneous and when I paint, the subjects often mix with something else and I shape them until my works slip somewhere that is between familiar and foreign to myself.

While I work, finding a subject is also a subject for me. It’s a way to deal with changes in my own life. I have a conflicting attitude towards change, it is often difficult for myself, even though I know it is necessary. It feels like the familiar path I have taken has suddenly branched out in different directions. I have to stop for a moment. Like a snake that creates its skin as it grows out of the old one, the painting challenges you to give up. It also challenges you to stop from time to time, to be in the moment and just to see and experience, without affecting it. As a person, I am interested in something that’s unfinished, it is being in constant change and accepting that everything is moving forward all the time. It is also to experiment without a clear goal. I often find myself in a situation where something new hasn’t yet clarified, but the old one no longer feels the same, it’s a moment I want to record through material on canvas.’ - Lauri Tiainen

Opening Evening:

March 24, 6 - 9 pm